Preservation of Leishmania donovani Promastigotes in Blood

Long-term cultivation of Leishmania promastigotesby weekly passage because needs labor, risk of contamination, lowering in infectivity and virulence pattern. Cryopreservation and Lyophilization require expensive facilities which could be a burden and unaffordable to most laboratories of developing countries where the disease is endemic. These problems could be minimized by simple preservation of Leishmania donovani promastigotes The preserved promastigotes were examined for viability up to one year at a regular interval of one month. Viable promastigotes were found and revived succ~ssfU;»Y from all the slants stored up